251,) that it may safely be assumed as
an historical fact.
an historical fact.
Oliver Goldsmith
The materials from which
his narrative was compiled, were the legendary ballads, which are in
every country the first record of warlike exploits; the calendars and
annals kept by the priests, and the documents kept by noble families
to establish their genealogy. Imperfect as these materials must
necessarily have been under any circumstances, we must remember that
the city of Rome was twice captured; once by Porsenna, and a second
time by the Gauls, about a century and a half before Fabius was born.
On the latter occasion the city was burned to the ground, and the
capital saved only by the payment of an immense ransom. By such a
calamity it is manifest that the most valuable documents must have
been dispersed or destroyed, and the part that escaped thrown into
great disorder. The heroic songs might indeed have been preserved in
the memory of the public reciters; but there is little necessity for
proving that poetic historians would naturally mingle so much fiction
with truth, that few of their assertions could be deemed authentic.
The history of the four first centuries of the Roman state is
accordingly full of the greatest inconsistences and improbabilities;
so much so, that many respectable writers have rejected the whole as
unworthy of credit; but this is as great an excess in scepticism, as
the reception of the whole would be of credulity. But if the
founders of the city, the date of its erection, and the circumstances
under which its citizens were assembled be altogether doubtful, as
will subsequently be shown, assuredly the history of events that
occurred four centuries previous must be involved in still greater
obscurity. The legend of Æneas, when he first appears noticed as a
progenitor of the Romans, differs materially from that which
afterwards prevailed. Romulus, in the earlier version of the story, is
invariably described as the son or grandson of Æneas. He is the
grandson in the poems of Nævius and Ennius, who were both nearly
contemporary with Fabius Pictor. This gave rise to an insuperable
chronological difficulty; for Troy was destroyed B. C. 1184, and Rome
was not founded until B. C. 753. To remedy this incongruity, a list of
Latin kings intervening between Æne'as and Rom'ulus, was invented; but
the forgery was so clumsily executed, that its falsehood is apparent
on the slightest inspection. It may also be remarked, that the actions
attributed to Æneas are, in other traditions of the same age and
country, ascribed to other adventurers; to Evander, a Pelasgic leader
from Arcadia, who is said to have founded a city on the site
afterwards occupied by Rome; or to Uly'sses, whose son Tele'gonus is
reported to have built Tus'culum.
If then we deny the historical truth of a legend which seems to have
been universally credited by the Romans, how are we to account for the
origin of the tale? Was the tradition of native growth, or was it
imported from Greece when the literature of that country was
introduced into Latium? These are questions that can only be answered
by guess; but perhaps the following theory may in some degree be found
satisfactory. We have shown that tradition, from the earliest age,
invariably asserted that Pelasgic colonies had formed settlements in
central Italy; nothing is more notorious than the custom of the
Pelasgic tribes to take the name of their general, or of some town in
which they had taken up their temporary residence; now Æne'a and Æ'nus
were common names of the Pelasgic towns; the city of Thessaloni'ca was
erected on the site of the ancient Æne'a; there was an Æ'nus in
Thrace,[A] another in Thessaly,[A] another among the Locrians, and
another in Epi'rus:[1] hence it is not very improbable but that some
of the Pelasgic tribes which entered Latium may have been called
the Æne'adæ; and the name, as in a thousand instances, preserved after
the cause was forgotten. This conjecture is confirmed by the fact,
that temples traditionally said to have been erected by a people
called the Æne'adæ, are found in the Macedonian peninsula of
Pall'ene,[2] in the islands of De'los, Cythe'ra, Zacy'nthus,
Leuca'dia, and Sicily, on the western coasts of Ambra'cia and Epi'rus,
and on the southern coast of Sicily.
The account of several Trojans, and especially Æne'as, having survived
the destruction of the city, is as old as the earliest narrative of
that famous siege; Homer distinctly asserts it when he makes Neptune
declare,
--Nor thus can Jove resign
The future father of the Dardan line:
The first great ancestor obtain'd his grace,
And still his love descends on all the race.
For Priam now, and Priam's faithless kind,
At length are odious, to the all-seeing mind;
On great Æneas shall devolve the reign,
And sons succeeding sons the lasting line sustain.
ILIAD, xx.
But long before the historic age, Phrygia and the greater part of the
western shores of Asia Minor were occupied by Grecian colonies, and
all remembrance of Æne'as and his followers lost. When the narrative
of the Trojan war, with other Greek legends, began to be circulated in
Lati'um, it was natural that the identity of name should have led to
the confounding of the Æne'adæ who had survived the destruction of
Troy, with those who had come to La'tium from the Pelasgic Æ'nus. The
cities which were said to be founded by the Æne'adæ were, Latin Troy,
which possessed empire for three years; Lavinium, whose sway lasted
thirty; Alba, which was supreme for three hundred years; and Rome,
whose dominion was to be interminable, though some assign a limit of
three thousand years. These numbers bear evident traces of
superstitious invention; and the legends by which these cities are
successively deduced from the first encampment of Æne'as, are at
variance with these fanciful periods. The account that Alba was built
by a son of Æne'as, who had been guided to the spot by a white sow,
which had farrowed thirty young, is clearly a story framed from
the similarity of the name to Albus (_white_,) and the circumstance of
the city having been the capital of the thirty Latin tribes. The city
derived its name from its position on the Alban mountain; for _Alb_,
or _Alp_, signifies lofty in the ancient language of Italy, and the
emblem of a sow with thirty young, may have been a significant emblem
of the dominion which it unquestionably possessed over the other Latin
states. The only thing that we can establish as certain in the early
history of La'tium is, that its inhabitants were of a mixed race, and
the sources from whence they sprung Pelasgic and Oscan; that is, one
connected with the Greeks, and the other with some ancient Italian
tribe. We have seen that this fact is the basis of all their
traditions, that it is confirmed by the structure of their language,
and, we may add, that it is further proved by their political
institutions. In all the Latin cities, as well as Rome, we find the
people divided into an aristocracy and democracy, or, as they are more
properly called, Patricians and Plebeians. The experience of all ages
warrants the inference, which may be best stated in the words of Dr.
Faber: "In the progress of the human mind there is an invariable
tendency not to introduce into an undisturbed community a palpable
difference between lords and serfs, instead of a legal equality of
rights; but to abolish such difference by enfranchising the serfs.
Hence, from the universal experience of history, we may be sure that
whenever this distinction is found to exist, the society must be
composed of two races differing from each other in point of origin. "
The traditions respecting the origin of Rome are innumerable; some
historians assert that its founder was a Greek; others, Æneas and his
Trojans; and others give the honour to the Tyrrhenians: all, however,
agree, that the first inhabitants were a Latin colony from Alba. Even
those who adopted the most current story, which is followed by Dr.
Goldsmith, believed that the city existed before the time of Rom'ulus,
and that he was called the founder from being the first who gave it
strength and stability. It seems probable that several villages might
have been formed at an early age on the different hills, which were
afterwards included in the circuit of Rome; and that the first of them
which obtained a decided superiority, the village on the Palatine
hill, finally absorbed the rest, and gave its name to "the eternal
city".
There seems to be some uncertainty whether Romulus gave his name
to the city, or derived his own from it; the latter is asserted by
several historians, but those who ascribe to the city a Grecian
origin, with some show of probability assert that Romus (another form
of Romulus) and Roma are both derived from the Greek [Greek: rômê],
_strength_. The city, we are assured, had another name, which the
priests were forbidden to divulge; but what that was, it is now
impossible to discover.
We have thus traced the history of the Latins down to the period when
Rome was founded, or at least when it became a city, and shown how
little reliance can be placed on the accounts given of these periods
by the early historians. We shall hereafter see that great uncertainty
rests on the history of Rome itself during the first four centuries of
its existence.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is scarcely necessary to remark that the Pelas'gi were the
original settlers in these countries.
[2] In all these places we find also the Tyrrhenian Pelas'gi.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III.
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME.
Full in the centre of these wondrous works
The pride of earth! Rome in her glory see. --_Thomson. _
1. The city of Rome, according to _Varro_, was founded in the fourth
year of the sixth _Olympiad_, B. C. 753; but Cato, the censor, places
the event four years later, in the second year of the seventh
Olympiad. The day of its foundation was the 21st of April, which was
sacred to the rural goddess Pa'les, when the rustics were accustomed
to solicit the increase of their flocks from the deity, and to purify
themselves for involuntary violation of the consecrated places. The
account preserved by tradition of the ceremonies used on this
occasion, confirms the opinion of those who contend that Rome had a
previous existence as a village, and that what is called its
foundation was really an enlargement of its boundaries, by taking in
the ground at the foot of the Palatine hill. The first care of
Ro'mulus was to mark out the Pomoe'rium; a space round the walls of
the city, on which it was unlawful to erect buildings.
2. The person who determined the Pomoe'rium yoked a bullock and
heifer to a plough, having a copper-share, and drew a furrow to mark
the course of the future wall; he guided the plough so that all the
sods might fall inwards, and was followed by others, who took
care that none should lie the other way. 3. When he came to the place
where it was designed to erect a gate, the plough was taken up,[1] and
carried to where the wall recommenced. The next ceremony was the
consecration of the commit'ium, or place of public assembly. A vault
was built under ground, and filled with the firstlings of all the
natural productions that sustain human life, and with earth which each
foreign settler had brought from his own home. This place was called
_Mun'dus_, and was supposed to become the gate of the lower world; it
was opened on three several days of the year, for the spirits of the
dead.
4. The next addition made to the city was the Sabine town,[2] which
occupied the Quirinal and part of the Capitoline hills. The name of
this town most probably was Qui'rium, and from it the Roman people
received the name Quirites. The two cities were united on terms of
equality, and the double-faced Ja'nus stamped on the earliest Roman
coins was probably a symbol of the double state. They were at first so
disunited, that even the rights of intermarriage did not exist between
them, and it was probably from Qui'rium that the Roman youths obtained
the wives[3] by force, which were refused to their entreaties. 5. The
next addition was the Coelian hill,[4] on which a Tuscan colony
settled; from these three colonies the three tribes of Ram'nes,
Ti'ties, and Lu'ceres were formed. 6. The Ram'nes, or Ram'nenses,
derived their name from Rom'ulus; the Tities, or Titien'ses, from
Titus Tatius, the king of the Sabines; and the Lu'ceres, from
Lu'cumo, the Tuscan title of a general or leader. [5] From this it
appears that the three tribes[6] were really three distinct nations,
differing in their origin, and dwelling apart.
7. The city was enlarged by Tullus Hostilius,[7] after the destruction
of Alba, and the Viminal hill included within the walls; Ancus Martius
added mount Aventine, and the Esquiline and Capitoline[8] being
enclosed in the next reign, completed the number of the seven hills on
which the ancient city stood.
8. The hill called Jani'culum, on the north bank of the Tiber, was
fortified as an outwork by Ancus Martius, and joined to the city by
the bridge; he also dug a trench round the newly erected buildings,
for their greater security, and called it the ditch of the Quirites.
9. The public works erected by the kings were of stupendous magnitude,
but the private buildings were wretched, the streets narrow, and the
houses mean. It was not until after the burning of the city by the
Gauls that the city was laid out on a better plan; after the Punic
wars wealth flowed in abundantly, and private persons began to erect
magnificent mansions. From the period of the conquest of Asia until
the reign of Augustus, the city daily augmented its splendour, but so
much was added by that emperor, that he boasted that "he found Rome a
city of brick, and left it a city of marble. "
10. The circumference of the city has been variously estimated, some
writers including in their computation a part of the suburbs;
according to Pliny it was near twenty miles round the walls. In
consequence of this great extent the city had more than thirty gates,
of which the most remarkable were the Carmental, the Esquiline, the
Triumphal, the Naval, and those called Tergem'ina and Cape'na.
11. The division of the city into four tribes continued until the
reign of Augustus; a new arrangement was made by the emperor, who
divided Rome into fourteen wards, or regions. [9] The magnificent
public and private buildings in a city so extensive and wealthy were
very numerous, and a bare catalogue of them would fill a volume;[10]
our attention must be confined to those which possessed some
historical importance.
12. The most celebrated and conspicuous buildings were in the eighth
division of the city, which contained the Capitol and its temples, the
Senate House, and the Forum. The Capitoline-hill was anciently called
Saturnius, from the ancient city of Satur'nia, of which it was the
citadel; it was afterwards called the Tarpeian mount, and finally
received the name of Capitoline from a human head[11] being found on
its summit when the foundations of the temple of Jupiter were laid. It
had two summits; that on the south retained the name Tarpeian;[12] the
northern was properly the Capitol. 13. On this part of the hill
Romulus first established his asylum, in a sacred grove, dedicated to
some unknown divinity; and erected a fort or citadel[13] on the
Tarpeian summit. The celebrated temple of Jupiter Capitoli'nus,
erected on this hill, was begun by the elder Tarquin, and finished by
Tarquin the Proud. It was burned down in the civil wars between
Ma'rius and Syl'la, but restored by the latter, who adorned it
with pillars taken from the temple of Jupiter at Olympia. It was
rebuilt after similar accidents by Vespa'sian and Domitian, and on
each occasion with additional splendour. The rich ornaments and gifts
presented to this temple by different princes and generals amounted to
a scarcely credible sum. The gold and jewels given by Augustus alone
are said to have exceeded in value four thousand pounds sterling. A
nail was annually driven into the wall of the temple to mark the
course of time; besides this chronological record, it contained the
Sibylline books, and other oracles supposed to be pregnant with the
fate of the city. There were several other temples on this hill, of
which the most remarkable was that of Jupiter Feretrius, erected by
Romulus, where the spolia opima were deposited.
14. The Forum, or place of public assembly, was situated between the
Palatine and Capitoline hills. It was surrounded with temples,
basilicks,[14] and public offices, and adorned with innumerable
statues. [15] On one side of this space were the elevated seats from
which the Roman magistrates and orators addressed the people; they
were called Rostra, because they were ornamented with the beaks of
some galleys taken from the city of Antium. In the centre of the forum
was a place called the Curtian Lake, either from a Sabine general
called Curtius, said to have been smothered in the marsh which was
once there; or from[16] the Roman knight who plunged into a gulf that
opened suddenly on the spot. The celebrated temple of Ja'nus, built
entirely of bronze, stood in the Forum; it is supposed to have been
erected by Numa. The gates of this temple were opened in time of war,
and shut during peace. So continuous we're the wars of the Romans,
that the gates were only closed three times during the space of eight
centuries. In the vicinity stood the temple of Concord, where the
senate frequently assembled, and the temple of Vesta, where the
palla'dium was said to be deposited.
15. Above the rostra was the Senate-house, said to have been
first erected by Tullus Hostilius; and near the Comitium, or place of
meeting for the patrician Curiæ. [17] This area was at first uncovered,
but a roof was erected at the close of the second Pu'nic war.
16. The Cam'pus Mar'tius, or field of Mars, was originally the estate
of Tarquin the Proud, and was, with his other property, confiscated
after the expulsion of that monarch. It was a large space, where
armies were mustered, general assemblies of the people held, and the
young nobility trained in martial exercises. In the later ages, it was
surrounded by several magnificent structures, and porticos were
erected, under which the citizens might take their accustomed exercise
in rainy weather. These improvements were principally made by Marcus
Agrippa, in the reign of Augustus. 17. He erected in the
neighbourhood, the Panthe'on, or temple of all the gods, one of the
most splendid buildings in ancient Rome. It is of a circular form, and
its roof is in the form of a cupola or dome; it is used at present as
a Christian church. Near the Panthe'on were the baths and gardens
which Agrippa, at his death, bequeathed to the Roman people.
18. The theatres and circi for the exhibition of public spectacles
were very numerous. The first theatre was erected by Pompey the Great;
but the Circus Maximus, where gladiatorial combats were displayed, was
erected by Tarquinus Priscus; this enormous building was frequently
enlarged, and in the age of Pliny could accommodate two hundred
thousand spectators. A still more remarkable edifice was the
amphitheatre erected by Vespasian, called, from its enormous size, the
Colosse'um.
19. Public baths were early erected for the use of the people, and in
the later ages were among the most remarkable displays of Roman luxury
and splendour. Lofty arches, stately pillars, vaulted ceilings, seats
of solid silver, costly marbles inlaid with precious stones, were
exhibited in these buildings with the most lavish profusion.
20. The aqueducts for supplying the city with water, were still more
worthy of admiration; they were supported by arches, many of them a
hundred feet high, and carried over mountains and morasses that might
have appeared insuperable. The first aqueduct was erected by Ap'pius
Clo'dius, the censor, four hundred years after the foundation
of the city; but under the emperors there were not less than twenty of
these useful structures, and such was the supply of water, that rivers
seemed to flow through the streets and sewers. Even now, though only
three of the aqueducts remain, such are their dimensions that no city
in Europe has a greater abundance of wholesome water than Rome.
21. The Cloa'cæ, or common sewers, attracted the wonder of the
ancients themselves; the largest was completed by Tarquin the Proud.
The innermost vault of this astonishing structure forms a semicircle
eighteen Roman palms wide, and as many high: this is inclosed in a
second vault, and that again in a third, all formed of hewn blocks of
pepenno, fixed together without cement. So extensive were these
channels, that in the reign of Augustus the city was subterraneously
navigable.
22. The public roads were little inferior to the aqueducts and Cloa'cæ
in utility and costliness; the chief was the Appian road from Rome to
Brundu'sium; it extended three hundred and fifty miles, and was paved
with huge squares through its entire length. After the lapse of
nineteen centuries many parts of it are still as perfect as when it
was first made.
23. The Appian road passed through the following towns; Ari'cia,
Fo'rum Ap'pii, An'xur or Terraci'na, Fun'di, Mintur'næ, Sinue'ssa,
Cap'ua, Can'dium, Beneven'tum, Equotu'ticum, Herdo'nia, Canu'sium,
Ba'rium, and Brundu'sium. Between Fo'rum Ap'pii and Terraci'na lie the
celebrated Pomptine marshes, formed by the overflowing of some small
streams. In the flourishing ages of Roman history these pestilential
marshes did not exist, or were confined to a very limited space; but
from the decline of the Roman empire, the waters gradually encroached,
until the successful exertions made by the Pontiffs in modern times to
arrest their baleful progress. Before the drainage of Pope Sixtus, the
marshes covered at least thirteen thousand acres of ground, which in
the earlier ages was the most fruitful portion of the Italian soil.
_Questions for Examination_.
1. When was Rome founded?
2. What ceremonies were used in determining the pomcerium?
3. How was the comitium consecrated?
4. What was the first addition made to Rome?
5. What was the next addition?
6. Into what tribes were the Romans divided?
7. What were the hills added in later times to Rome?
8. Had the Romans any buildings north of the Tiber?
9. When did Rome become a magnificent city?
10. What was the extent of the city?
11. How was the city divided?
12. Which was the most remarkable of the seven hills?
13. What buildings were on the Capitoline hill?
14. What description is given of the forum?
15. Where was the senate-house and comitium?
16. What use was made of the Campus Martius?
17. What was the Pantheon?
18. Were the theatres and circii remarkable?
19. Had the Romans public baths?
20. How was the city supplied with water?
21. Were the cloacæ remarkable for their size?
22. Which was the chief Italian road?
23. What were the most remarkable places on the Appian road?
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hence a gate was called _porta_, from _porta're_, to carry. The
reason of this part of the ceremony was, that the plough being deemed
holy, it was unlawful that any thing unclean should pollute the place
which it had touched; but it was obviously necessary that things clean
and unclean should pass through the gates of the city. It is
remarkable that all the ceremonies here mentioned were imitated from
the Tuscans.
[2] This, though apparently a mere conjecture, has been so fully
proved by Niebuhr, (vol. i. p.
251,) that it may safely be assumed as
an historical fact.
[3] See Chapter II. of the following history.
[4] All authors are agreed that the Coelian hill was named from
Coeles Viben'na, a Tuscan chief; but there is a great variety in the
date assigned to his settlement at Rome. Some make him cotemporary
with Rom'ulus, others with the elder Tarquin, or Servius Tullius. In
this uncertainty all that can be satisfactorily determined is, that at
some early period a Tuscan colony settled in Rome.
[5] Others say that they were named so in honour of Lu'ceres, king of
Ardea, according to which theory the third would have been a
Pelasgo-Tyrrhenian colony.
[6] We shall hereafter have occasion to remark, that the Lu'ceres were
subject to the other tribes.
[7] See History, Chapter IV.
[8] The Pincian and Vatican hills were added at a much later period
and these, with Janiculum, made the number ten.
[9] They were named as follow:
1. Porta Cape'na 2. Coelimon'tium 3. I'sis and Sera'pis 4. Via
Sa'cra 5. Esquili'na 6. Acta Se'mita 7. Vita Lata 8. Forum Roma'num 9.
Circus Flamin'ius 10. Pala'tium 11. Circus Max'imus 12. Pici'na
Pub'lica 13. Aventinus 14. Transtiberi'na.
The divisions made by Servius were named: the Suburan, which comprised
chiefly the Coelian mount; the Colline, which included the Viminal
and Quirinal hills; the Esquiline and Palatine, which evidently
coincided with the hills of the same name.
[10] Among the public buildings of ancient Rome, when in her zenith,
are numbered 420 temples, five regular theatres, two amphitheatres,
and seven circusses of vast extent; sixteen public baths, fourteen
aqueducts, from which a prodigious number of fountains were constantly
supplied; innumerable palaces and public halls, stately columns,
splendid porticos, and lofty obelisks.
[11] From _caput_, "a head. "
[12] State criminals were punished by being precipitated from the
Tarpeian rock; the soil has been since so much raised by the
accumulation of ruins, that a fall from it is no longer dangerous.
[13] In the reign of Numa, the Quirinal hill was deemed the citadel of
Rome; an additional confirmation of Niebuhr's theory, that Quirium was
a Sabine town, which, being early absorbed in Rome, was mistaken by
subsequent, writers for Cu'res.
[14] Basilicks were spacious halls for the administration of justice.
[15] It is called _Templum_ by Livy; but the word templum with the
Romans does not mean an edifice, but a consecrated inclosure. From its
position, we may conjecture that the forum was originally a place of
meeting common to the inhabitants of the Sabine town on the Quirinal,
and the Latin town on the Palatine hill.
[16] See Chap. XII. Sect. V. of the following History.
[17] See the following chapter.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROMAN CONSTITUTION.
As once in virtue, so in vice extreme,
This universal fabric yielded loose,
Before ambition still; and thundering down,
At last beneath its ruins crush'd a world. --_Thomson_.
I. The most remarkable feature in the Roman constitution is the
division of the people into Patricians and Plebeians, and our first
inquiry must be the origin of this separation. It is clearly
impossible that such a distinction could have existed from the very
beginning, because no persons would have consented in a new community
to the investing of any class with peculiar privileges. We find that
all the Roman kings, after they had subdued a city, drafted a portion
of its inhabitants to Rome; and if they did not destroy the subjugated
place, garrisoned it with a Roman colony. The strangers thus brought
to Rome were not admitted to a participation of civic rights; they
were like the inhabitants of a corporate town who are excluded from
the elective franchise: by successive immigrations, the number of
persons thus disqualified became more numerous than that of the first
inhabitants or old freemen, and they naturally sought a share in the
government, as a means of protecting their persons and properties. On
the other hand, the men who possessed the exclusive power of
legislation, struggled hard to retain their hereditary privileges, and
when forced to make concessions, yielded as little as they
possibly could to the popular demands. Modern history furnishes us
with numerous instances of similar struggles between classes, and of a
separation in interests and feelings between inhabitants of the same
country, fully as strong as that between the patricians and plebeians
at Rome.
2. The first tribes were divided by Ro'mulus into thirty _cu'riæ,_ and
each cu'ria contained ten _gentes_ or associations. The individuals of
each gens were not in all cases, and probably not in the majority of
instances, connected by birth;[1] the attributes of the members of a
_gens_, according to Cicero, were, a common name and participation in
private religious rites; descent from free ancestors; the absence of
legal disqualification. 3. The members of these associations were
united by certain laws, which conferred peculiar privileges, called
jura gentium; of these the most remarkable were, the succession to the
property of every member who died without kin and intestate, and the
obligation imposed on all to assist their indigent fellows under any
extraordinary burthen. [2] 4. The head of each gens was regarded as a
kind of father, and possessed a paternal authority over the members;
the chieftancy was both elective and hereditary;[3] that is, the
individual was always selected from some particular family.
5. Besides the members of the gens, there were attached to it a number
of dependents called clients, who owed submission to the chief as
their patron, and received from him assistance and protection. The
clients were generally foreigners who came to settle at Rome, and not
possessing municipal rights, were forced to appear in the courts of
law, &c. by proxy. In process of time this relation assumed a feudal
form, and the clients were bound to the same duties as vassals[4] in
the middle ages.
6. The chiefs of the gentes composed the senate, and were called
"fathers," (patres. ) In the time of Romulus, the senate at first
consisted only of one hundred members, who of course represented the
Latin tribe Ramne'nses; the number was doubled after the union with
the Sabines, and the new members were chosen from the Titienses. The
Tuscan tribe of the Lu'ceres remained unrepresented in the senate
until the reign of the first Tarquin, when the legislative body
received another hundred[5] from that tribe. Tarquin the elder was,
according to history, a Tuscan Iticumo, and seems to have owed his
elevation principally to the efforts of his compatriots settled at
Rome. It is to this event we must refer, in a great degree, the number
of Tuscan ceremonies which are to be found in the political
institutions of the Romans.
7. The gentes were not only represented in the senate, but met also in
a public assembly called "comitia curiata. " In these comitia the kings
were elected and invested with royal authority. After the complete
change of the constitution in later ages, the "comitia curiata"[6]
rarely assembled, and their power was limited to religious matters;
but during the earlier period of the republic, they claimed and
frequently exercised the supreme powers of the state, and were named
emphatically, The People.
8. The power and prerogatives of the kings at Rome, were similar to
those of the Grecian sovereigns in the heroic ages. The monarch was
general of the army, a high priest,[7] and first magistrate of the
realm; he administered justice in person every ninth day, but an
appeal lay from his sentence, in criminal cases, to the general
assemblies of the people. The pontiffs and augurs, however, were
in some measure independent of the sovereign, and assumed the
uncontrolled direction of the religion of the state.
9. The entire constitution was remodelled by Ser'vius Tul'lius, and a
more liberal form of government introduced. His first and greatest
achievement was the formation of the plebeians into an organized order
of the state, invested with political rights. He divided them into
four cities and twenty-six rustic tribes, and thus made the number of
tribes the same as that of the curiæ. This was strictly a geographical
division, analagous to our parishes, and had no connection with
families, like that of the Jewish tribes.
10. Still more remarkable was the institution of the census, and the
distribution of the people into classes and centuries proportionate to
their wealth. The census was a periodical valuation of all the
property possessed by the citizens, and an enumeration of all the
subjects of the state: there were five classes, ranged according to
the estimated value of their possessions, and the taxes they
consequently paid. The first class contained eighty centuries out of
the hundred and seventy; the sixth class, in which those were included
who were too poor to be taxed, counted but for one. We shall,
hereafter have occasion to see that this arrangement was also used for
military purposes; it is only necessary to say here, that the sixth
class were deprived of the use of arms, and exempt from serving in
war.
11. The people voted in the comitia centuriata by centuries; that is,
the vote of each century was taken separately and counted only as one.
By this arrangement a just influence was secured to property; and the
clients of the patricians in the sixth class prevented from
out-numbering the free citizens.
12. Ser'vius Tul'lius undoubtedly intended that the comitia centuriata
should form the third estate of the realm, and during his reign they
probably held that rank; but when, by an aristocratic insurrection he
was slain in the senate-house, the power conceded to the people was
again usurped by the patricians, and the comitio centuriata did not
recover the right[8] of legislation before the laws[9] of the twelve
tables were established.
13. The law which made the debtor a slave to his creditor was repealed
by Ser'vius, and re-enacted by his successor; the patricians preserved
this abominable custom during several ages, and did not resign it
until the state had been brought to the very brink of ruin.
14. During the reign of Ser'vius, Rome was placed at the head of the
Latin confederacy, and acknowledged to be the metropolitan city. It
was deprived of this supremacy after the war with Porsen'na, but soon
recovered its former greatness.
15. The equestrian rank was an order in the Roman state from the very
beginning. It was at first confined to the nobility, and none but the
patricians had the privilege of serving on horseback. But in the later
ages, it became a political dignity, and persons were raised to the
equestrian rank by the amount of their possessions.
16. The next great change took place after the expulsion of the kings;
annual magistrates, called consuls, were elected in the comitia
centuriata, but none but patricians could hold this office. 17. The
liberties of the people were soon after extended and secured by
certain laws, traditionally attributed to Vale'rius Public'ola, of
which the most important was that which allowed[10] an appeal to a
general assembly of the people from the sentence of a magistrate. 18.
To deprive the plebeians of this privilege was the darling object of
the patricians, and it was for this purpose alone that they instituted
the dictatorship. From the sentence of this magistrate there was no
appeal to the tribes or centuries, but the patricians kept their own
privilege of being tried before the tribunal of the curiæ. 19. The
power of the state was now usurped by a factious oligarchy, whose
oppressions were more grievous than those of the worst tyrant; they at
last became so intolerable, that the commonalty had recourse to arms,
and fortified that part of the city which was exclusively inhabited by
the plebeians, while others formed a camp on the Sacred Mount at some
distance from Rome. A tumult of this kind was called a secession; it
threatened to terminate in a civil war, which would have been both
long and doubtful; for the patricians and their clients were probably
as numerous as the people. A reconciliation was effected, and the
plebeians placed under the protection of magistrates chosen from their
own body, called tribunes of the people.
20. The plebeians, having now authorised leaders, began to struggle
for an equalization of rights, and the patricians resisted them with
the most determined energy. In this protracted contest the popular
cause prevailed, though the patricians made use of the most violent
means to secure their usurped powers. The first triumph obtained by
the people was the right to summon patricians before the comitia
tributa, or assemblies of people in tribes; soon after they obtained
the privilege of electing their tribunes at these comitia, instead of
the centuria'ta; and finally, after a fierce opposition, the
patricians were forced to consent that the state should be governed by
a written code.
21. The laws of the twelve tables did not alter the legal relations
between the citizens; the struggle was renewed with greater violence
than ever after the expulsion of the decem'viri, but finally
terminated in the complete triumph of the people. The Roman
constitution became essentially democratical; the offices of the state
were open to all the citizens; and although the difference between the
patrician and plebeian families still subsisted, they soon ceased of
themselves to be political parties. From the time that equal rights
were granted to all the citizens, Rome advanced rapidly in wealth and
power; the subjugation of Italy was effected within the succeeding
century, and that was soon followed by foreign conquests.
22. In the early part of the struggle between the patricians and
plebeians, the magistracy, named the censorship, was instituted. The
censors were designed at first merely to preside over the taking of
the census, but they afterwards obtained the power of punishing, by a
deprivation of civil rights, those who were guilty of any flagrant
immorality. The patricians retained exclusive possession of the
censorship, long after the consulship had been opened to the
plebeians.
23. The senate,[11] which had been originally a patrician
council, was gradually opened to the plebeians; when the free
constitution was perfected, every person possessing a competent
fortune that had held a superior magistracy, was enrolled as a senator
at the census immediately succeeding the termination of his office.
_Questions for Examination_.
1. What is the most probable account given of the origin of the
distinction between the patricians and the plebeians at Rome?
2. How did Romulus subdivide the Roman tribes?
3. By what regulations were the gentes governed?
4. Who were the chiefs of the gentes?
5. What was the condition of the clients?
6. By whom were alterations made in the number and constitution of the
senate?
7. What assembly was peculiar to the patricians?
8. What were the powers of the Roman kings?
9. What great change was made in the Roman constitution by Servius
Tullius?
10. For what purpose was the census instituted?
11. How were votes taken in the comitia centuriata?
12. Were the designs of Servius frustrated?
13. What was the Roman law respecting debtors?
14. When did the Roman power decline?
15. What changes were made in the constitution of the equestrian rank?
16. What change was made after the abolition of royalty?
17. How were the liberties of the people secured?
18. Why was the office of dictator appointed?
19. How did the plebeians obtain the protection of magistrates chosen
from their own order?
20. What additional triumphs were obtained by the plebeians?
21. What was the consequence of the establishment of freedom?
22. For what purpose was the censorship instituted?
23. What change took place in the constitution of the senate?
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The same remark may be applied to the Scottish clans and the
ancient Irish septs, which were very similar to the Roman _gentes_.
[2] When the plebeians endeavoured to procure the repeal of the laws
which prohibited the intermarriage of the patricians and plebeians,
the principal objection made by the former was, that these rights and
obligations of the gentes (jura gentium) would be thrown into
confusion.
[3] This was also the case with the Irish tanists, or chiefs of septs;
the people elected a tanist, but their choice was confined to the
members of the ruling family.
[4] See Historical Miscellany Part III. Chap. i.
[5] They were called "patres nunorum gentium," the senators of the
inferior gentes.
[6] The "comitia curiata," assembled in the comi'tium, the general
assemblies of the people were held in the forum. The patrician curiæ
were called, emphatically, the council of the people; (concilium
populi;) the third estate was called plebeian, (plebs. ) This
distinction between _populus_ and _plebs_ was disregarded after the
plebeians had established their claim to equal rights. The English
reader will easily understand the difference, if he considers that the
patricians were precisely similar to the members of a close
corporation, and the plebeians to the other inhabitants of a city. In
London, for example, the common council may represent the senate, the
livery answer for the populus, patricians, or comitia curiata, and the
general body of other inhabitants will correspond with the plebs.
[7] There were certain sacrifices which the Romans believed could only
be offered by a king; after the abolition of royalty, a priest, named
the petty sacrificing king, (rex sacrificulus,) was elected to perform
this duty.
[8] Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the _exclusive_ right of
legislation; for it appears that the comitia centuriata were sometimes
summoned to give their sanction to laws which had been previously
enacted by the curiæ.
[9] See Chap. XII.
[10] The Romans were previously acquainted with that great principle
of justice, the right of trial by a person's peers. In the earliest
ages the patricians had a right of appeal to the curiæ; the Valerian
laws extended the same right to the plebeians.
[11] The senators were called conscript fathers, (patres conscripti,)
either from their being enrolled on the censor's list, or more
probably from the addition made to their numbers after the expulsion
of the kings, in order to supply the places of those who had been
murdered by Tarquin. The new senators were at first called conscript,
and in the process of time the name was extended to the entire body.
* * * * *
CHAPTER V.
THE ROMAN TENURE OF LAND--COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care,
Heedless of others, to his own severe. --_Homer_.
[As this chapter is principally designed for advanced students, it has
not been thought necessary to add questions for examination. ]
The contests respecting agrarian laws occupy so large a space in Roman
history, and are so liable to be misunderstood, that it is necessary
to explain their origin at some length. According to an almost
universal custom, the right of conquest was supposed to involve the
property of the land. Thus the Normans who assisted William I. were
supposed to have obtained a right to the possessions of the Saxons;
and in a later age, the Irish princes, whose estates were not
confirmed by a direct grant from the English crown, were exposed to
forfeiture when legally summoned to prove their titles.
his narrative was compiled, were the legendary ballads, which are in
every country the first record of warlike exploits; the calendars and
annals kept by the priests, and the documents kept by noble families
to establish their genealogy. Imperfect as these materials must
necessarily have been under any circumstances, we must remember that
the city of Rome was twice captured; once by Porsenna, and a second
time by the Gauls, about a century and a half before Fabius was born.
On the latter occasion the city was burned to the ground, and the
capital saved only by the payment of an immense ransom. By such a
calamity it is manifest that the most valuable documents must have
been dispersed or destroyed, and the part that escaped thrown into
great disorder. The heroic songs might indeed have been preserved in
the memory of the public reciters; but there is little necessity for
proving that poetic historians would naturally mingle so much fiction
with truth, that few of their assertions could be deemed authentic.
The history of the four first centuries of the Roman state is
accordingly full of the greatest inconsistences and improbabilities;
so much so, that many respectable writers have rejected the whole as
unworthy of credit; but this is as great an excess in scepticism, as
the reception of the whole would be of credulity. But if the
founders of the city, the date of its erection, and the circumstances
under which its citizens were assembled be altogether doubtful, as
will subsequently be shown, assuredly the history of events that
occurred four centuries previous must be involved in still greater
obscurity. The legend of Æneas, when he first appears noticed as a
progenitor of the Romans, differs materially from that which
afterwards prevailed. Romulus, in the earlier version of the story, is
invariably described as the son or grandson of Æneas. He is the
grandson in the poems of Nævius and Ennius, who were both nearly
contemporary with Fabius Pictor. This gave rise to an insuperable
chronological difficulty; for Troy was destroyed B. C. 1184, and Rome
was not founded until B. C. 753. To remedy this incongruity, a list of
Latin kings intervening between Æne'as and Rom'ulus, was invented; but
the forgery was so clumsily executed, that its falsehood is apparent
on the slightest inspection. It may also be remarked, that the actions
attributed to Æneas are, in other traditions of the same age and
country, ascribed to other adventurers; to Evander, a Pelasgic leader
from Arcadia, who is said to have founded a city on the site
afterwards occupied by Rome; or to Uly'sses, whose son Tele'gonus is
reported to have built Tus'culum.
If then we deny the historical truth of a legend which seems to have
been universally credited by the Romans, how are we to account for the
origin of the tale? Was the tradition of native growth, or was it
imported from Greece when the literature of that country was
introduced into Latium? These are questions that can only be answered
by guess; but perhaps the following theory may in some degree be found
satisfactory. We have shown that tradition, from the earliest age,
invariably asserted that Pelasgic colonies had formed settlements in
central Italy; nothing is more notorious than the custom of the
Pelasgic tribes to take the name of their general, or of some town in
which they had taken up their temporary residence; now Æne'a and Æ'nus
were common names of the Pelasgic towns; the city of Thessaloni'ca was
erected on the site of the ancient Æne'a; there was an Æ'nus in
Thrace,[A] another in Thessaly,[A] another among the Locrians, and
another in Epi'rus:[1] hence it is not very improbable but that some
of the Pelasgic tribes which entered Latium may have been called
the Æne'adæ; and the name, as in a thousand instances, preserved after
the cause was forgotten. This conjecture is confirmed by the fact,
that temples traditionally said to have been erected by a people
called the Æne'adæ, are found in the Macedonian peninsula of
Pall'ene,[2] in the islands of De'los, Cythe'ra, Zacy'nthus,
Leuca'dia, and Sicily, on the western coasts of Ambra'cia and Epi'rus,
and on the southern coast of Sicily.
The account of several Trojans, and especially Æne'as, having survived
the destruction of the city, is as old as the earliest narrative of
that famous siege; Homer distinctly asserts it when he makes Neptune
declare,
--Nor thus can Jove resign
The future father of the Dardan line:
The first great ancestor obtain'd his grace,
And still his love descends on all the race.
For Priam now, and Priam's faithless kind,
At length are odious, to the all-seeing mind;
On great Æneas shall devolve the reign,
And sons succeeding sons the lasting line sustain.
ILIAD, xx.
But long before the historic age, Phrygia and the greater part of the
western shores of Asia Minor were occupied by Grecian colonies, and
all remembrance of Æne'as and his followers lost. When the narrative
of the Trojan war, with other Greek legends, began to be circulated in
Lati'um, it was natural that the identity of name should have led to
the confounding of the Æne'adæ who had survived the destruction of
Troy, with those who had come to La'tium from the Pelasgic Æ'nus. The
cities which were said to be founded by the Æne'adæ were, Latin Troy,
which possessed empire for three years; Lavinium, whose sway lasted
thirty; Alba, which was supreme for three hundred years; and Rome,
whose dominion was to be interminable, though some assign a limit of
three thousand years. These numbers bear evident traces of
superstitious invention; and the legends by which these cities are
successively deduced from the first encampment of Æne'as, are at
variance with these fanciful periods. The account that Alba was built
by a son of Æne'as, who had been guided to the spot by a white sow,
which had farrowed thirty young, is clearly a story framed from
the similarity of the name to Albus (_white_,) and the circumstance of
the city having been the capital of the thirty Latin tribes. The city
derived its name from its position on the Alban mountain; for _Alb_,
or _Alp_, signifies lofty in the ancient language of Italy, and the
emblem of a sow with thirty young, may have been a significant emblem
of the dominion which it unquestionably possessed over the other Latin
states. The only thing that we can establish as certain in the early
history of La'tium is, that its inhabitants were of a mixed race, and
the sources from whence they sprung Pelasgic and Oscan; that is, one
connected with the Greeks, and the other with some ancient Italian
tribe. We have seen that this fact is the basis of all their
traditions, that it is confirmed by the structure of their language,
and, we may add, that it is further proved by their political
institutions. In all the Latin cities, as well as Rome, we find the
people divided into an aristocracy and democracy, or, as they are more
properly called, Patricians and Plebeians. The experience of all ages
warrants the inference, which may be best stated in the words of Dr.
Faber: "In the progress of the human mind there is an invariable
tendency not to introduce into an undisturbed community a palpable
difference between lords and serfs, instead of a legal equality of
rights; but to abolish such difference by enfranchising the serfs.
Hence, from the universal experience of history, we may be sure that
whenever this distinction is found to exist, the society must be
composed of two races differing from each other in point of origin. "
The traditions respecting the origin of Rome are innumerable; some
historians assert that its founder was a Greek; others, Æneas and his
Trojans; and others give the honour to the Tyrrhenians: all, however,
agree, that the first inhabitants were a Latin colony from Alba. Even
those who adopted the most current story, which is followed by Dr.
Goldsmith, believed that the city existed before the time of Rom'ulus,
and that he was called the founder from being the first who gave it
strength and stability. It seems probable that several villages might
have been formed at an early age on the different hills, which were
afterwards included in the circuit of Rome; and that the first of them
which obtained a decided superiority, the village on the Palatine
hill, finally absorbed the rest, and gave its name to "the eternal
city".
There seems to be some uncertainty whether Romulus gave his name
to the city, or derived his own from it; the latter is asserted by
several historians, but those who ascribe to the city a Grecian
origin, with some show of probability assert that Romus (another form
of Romulus) and Roma are both derived from the Greek [Greek: rômê],
_strength_. The city, we are assured, had another name, which the
priests were forbidden to divulge; but what that was, it is now
impossible to discover.
We have thus traced the history of the Latins down to the period when
Rome was founded, or at least when it became a city, and shown how
little reliance can be placed on the accounts given of these periods
by the early historians. We shall hereafter see that great uncertainty
rests on the history of Rome itself during the first four centuries of
its existence.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is scarcely necessary to remark that the Pelas'gi were the
original settlers in these countries.
[2] In all these places we find also the Tyrrhenian Pelas'gi.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III.
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME.
Full in the centre of these wondrous works
The pride of earth! Rome in her glory see. --_Thomson. _
1. The city of Rome, according to _Varro_, was founded in the fourth
year of the sixth _Olympiad_, B. C. 753; but Cato, the censor, places
the event four years later, in the second year of the seventh
Olympiad. The day of its foundation was the 21st of April, which was
sacred to the rural goddess Pa'les, when the rustics were accustomed
to solicit the increase of their flocks from the deity, and to purify
themselves for involuntary violation of the consecrated places. The
account preserved by tradition of the ceremonies used on this
occasion, confirms the opinion of those who contend that Rome had a
previous existence as a village, and that what is called its
foundation was really an enlargement of its boundaries, by taking in
the ground at the foot of the Palatine hill. The first care of
Ro'mulus was to mark out the Pomoe'rium; a space round the walls of
the city, on which it was unlawful to erect buildings.
2. The person who determined the Pomoe'rium yoked a bullock and
heifer to a plough, having a copper-share, and drew a furrow to mark
the course of the future wall; he guided the plough so that all the
sods might fall inwards, and was followed by others, who took
care that none should lie the other way. 3. When he came to the place
where it was designed to erect a gate, the plough was taken up,[1] and
carried to where the wall recommenced. The next ceremony was the
consecration of the commit'ium, or place of public assembly. A vault
was built under ground, and filled with the firstlings of all the
natural productions that sustain human life, and with earth which each
foreign settler had brought from his own home. This place was called
_Mun'dus_, and was supposed to become the gate of the lower world; it
was opened on three several days of the year, for the spirits of the
dead.
4. The next addition made to the city was the Sabine town,[2] which
occupied the Quirinal and part of the Capitoline hills. The name of
this town most probably was Qui'rium, and from it the Roman people
received the name Quirites. The two cities were united on terms of
equality, and the double-faced Ja'nus stamped on the earliest Roman
coins was probably a symbol of the double state. They were at first so
disunited, that even the rights of intermarriage did not exist between
them, and it was probably from Qui'rium that the Roman youths obtained
the wives[3] by force, which were refused to their entreaties. 5. The
next addition was the Coelian hill,[4] on which a Tuscan colony
settled; from these three colonies the three tribes of Ram'nes,
Ti'ties, and Lu'ceres were formed. 6. The Ram'nes, or Ram'nenses,
derived their name from Rom'ulus; the Tities, or Titien'ses, from
Titus Tatius, the king of the Sabines; and the Lu'ceres, from
Lu'cumo, the Tuscan title of a general or leader. [5] From this it
appears that the three tribes[6] were really three distinct nations,
differing in their origin, and dwelling apart.
7. The city was enlarged by Tullus Hostilius,[7] after the destruction
of Alba, and the Viminal hill included within the walls; Ancus Martius
added mount Aventine, and the Esquiline and Capitoline[8] being
enclosed in the next reign, completed the number of the seven hills on
which the ancient city stood.
8. The hill called Jani'culum, on the north bank of the Tiber, was
fortified as an outwork by Ancus Martius, and joined to the city by
the bridge; he also dug a trench round the newly erected buildings,
for their greater security, and called it the ditch of the Quirites.
9. The public works erected by the kings were of stupendous magnitude,
but the private buildings were wretched, the streets narrow, and the
houses mean. It was not until after the burning of the city by the
Gauls that the city was laid out on a better plan; after the Punic
wars wealth flowed in abundantly, and private persons began to erect
magnificent mansions. From the period of the conquest of Asia until
the reign of Augustus, the city daily augmented its splendour, but so
much was added by that emperor, that he boasted that "he found Rome a
city of brick, and left it a city of marble. "
10. The circumference of the city has been variously estimated, some
writers including in their computation a part of the suburbs;
according to Pliny it was near twenty miles round the walls. In
consequence of this great extent the city had more than thirty gates,
of which the most remarkable were the Carmental, the Esquiline, the
Triumphal, the Naval, and those called Tergem'ina and Cape'na.
11. The division of the city into four tribes continued until the
reign of Augustus; a new arrangement was made by the emperor, who
divided Rome into fourteen wards, or regions. [9] The magnificent
public and private buildings in a city so extensive and wealthy were
very numerous, and a bare catalogue of them would fill a volume;[10]
our attention must be confined to those which possessed some
historical importance.
12. The most celebrated and conspicuous buildings were in the eighth
division of the city, which contained the Capitol and its temples, the
Senate House, and the Forum. The Capitoline-hill was anciently called
Saturnius, from the ancient city of Satur'nia, of which it was the
citadel; it was afterwards called the Tarpeian mount, and finally
received the name of Capitoline from a human head[11] being found on
its summit when the foundations of the temple of Jupiter were laid. It
had two summits; that on the south retained the name Tarpeian;[12] the
northern was properly the Capitol. 13. On this part of the hill
Romulus first established his asylum, in a sacred grove, dedicated to
some unknown divinity; and erected a fort or citadel[13] on the
Tarpeian summit. The celebrated temple of Jupiter Capitoli'nus,
erected on this hill, was begun by the elder Tarquin, and finished by
Tarquin the Proud. It was burned down in the civil wars between
Ma'rius and Syl'la, but restored by the latter, who adorned it
with pillars taken from the temple of Jupiter at Olympia. It was
rebuilt after similar accidents by Vespa'sian and Domitian, and on
each occasion with additional splendour. The rich ornaments and gifts
presented to this temple by different princes and generals amounted to
a scarcely credible sum. The gold and jewels given by Augustus alone
are said to have exceeded in value four thousand pounds sterling. A
nail was annually driven into the wall of the temple to mark the
course of time; besides this chronological record, it contained the
Sibylline books, and other oracles supposed to be pregnant with the
fate of the city. There were several other temples on this hill, of
which the most remarkable was that of Jupiter Feretrius, erected by
Romulus, where the spolia opima were deposited.
14. The Forum, or place of public assembly, was situated between the
Palatine and Capitoline hills. It was surrounded with temples,
basilicks,[14] and public offices, and adorned with innumerable
statues. [15] On one side of this space were the elevated seats from
which the Roman magistrates and orators addressed the people; they
were called Rostra, because they were ornamented with the beaks of
some galleys taken from the city of Antium. In the centre of the forum
was a place called the Curtian Lake, either from a Sabine general
called Curtius, said to have been smothered in the marsh which was
once there; or from[16] the Roman knight who plunged into a gulf that
opened suddenly on the spot. The celebrated temple of Ja'nus, built
entirely of bronze, stood in the Forum; it is supposed to have been
erected by Numa. The gates of this temple were opened in time of war,
and shut during peace. So continuous we're the wars of the Romans,
that the gates were only closed three times during the space of eight
centuries. In the vicinity stood the temple of Concord, where the
senate frequently assembled, and the temple of Vesta, where the
palla'dium was said to be deposited.
15. Above the rostra was the Senate-house, said to have been
first erected by Tullus Hostilius; and near the Comitium, or place of
meeting for the patrician Curiæ. [17] This area was at first uncovered,
but a roof was erected at the close of the second Pu'nic war.
16. The Cam'pus Mar'tius, or field of Mars, was originally the estate
of Tarquin the Proud, and was, with his other property, confiscated
after the expulsion of that monarch. It was a large space, where
armies were mustered, general assemblies of the people held, and the
young nobility trained in martial exercises. In the later ages, it was
surrounded by several magnificent structures, and porticos were
erected, under which the citizens might take their accustomed exercise
in rainy weather. These improvements were principally made by Marcus
Agrippa, in the reign of Augustus. 17. He erected in the
neighbourhood, the Panthe'on, or temple of all the gods, one of the
most splendid buildings in ancient Rome. It is of a circular form, and
its roof is in the form of a cupola or dome; it is used at present as
a Christian church. Near the Panthe'on were the baths and gardens
which Agrippa, at his death, bequeathed to the Roman people.
18. The theatres and circi for the exhibition of public spectacles
were very numerous. The first theatre was erected by Pompey the Great;
but the Circus Maximus, where gladiatorial combats were displayed, was
erected by Tarquinus Priscus; this enormous building was frequently
enlarged, and in the age of Pliny could accommodate two hundred
thousand spectators. A still more remarkable edifice was the
amphitheatre erected by Vespasian, called, from its enormous size, the
Colosse'um.
19. Public baths were early erected for the use of the people, and in
the later ages were among the most remarkable displays of Roman luxury
and splendour. Lofty arches, stately pillars, vaulted ceilings, seats
of solid silver, costly marbles inlaid with precious stones, were
exhibited in these buildings with the most lavish profusion.
20. The aqueducts for supplying the city with water, were still more
worthy of admiration; they were supported by arches, many of them a
hundred feet high, and carried over mountains and morasses that might
have appeared insuperable. The first aqueduct was erected by Ap'pius
Clo'dius, the censor, four hundred years after the foundation
of the city; but under the emperors there were not less than twenty of
these useful structures, and such was the supply of water, that rivers
seemed to flow through the streets and sewers. Even now, though only
three of the aqueducts remain, such are their dimensions that no city
in Europe has a greater abundance of wholesome water than Rome.
21. The Cloa'cæ, or common sewers, attracted the wonder of the
ancients themselves; the largest was completed by Tarquin the Proud.
The innermost vault of this astonishing structure forms a semicircle
eighteen Roman palms wide, and as many high: this is inclosed in a
second vault, and that again in a third, all formed of hewn blocks of
pepenno, fixed together without cement. So extensive were these
channels, that in the reign of Augustus the city was subterraneously
navigable.
22. The public roads were little inferior to the aqueducts and Cloa'cæ
in utility and costliness; the chief was the Appian road from Rome to
Brundu'sium; it extended three hundred and fifty miles, and was paved
with huge squares through its entire length. After the lapse of
nineteen centuries many parts of it are still as perfect as when it
was first made.
23. The Appian road passed through the following towns; Ari'cia,
Fo'rum Ap'pii, An'xur or Terraci'na, Fun'di, Mintur'næ, Sinue'ssa,
Cap'ua, Can'dium, Beneven'tum, Equotu'ticum, Herdo'nia, Canu'sium,
Ba'rium, and Brundu'sium. Between Fo'rum Ap'pii and Terraci'na lie the
celebrated Pomptine marshes, formed by the overflowing of some small
streams. In the flourishing ages of Roman history these pestilential
marshes did not exist, or were confined to a very limited space; but
from the decline of the Roman empire, the waters gradually encroached,
until the successful exertions made by the Pontiffs in modern times to
arrest their baleful progress. Before the drainage of Pope Sixtus, the
marshes covered at least thirteen thousand acres of ground, which in
the earlier ages was the most fruitful portion of the Italian soil.
_Questions for Examination_.
1. When was Rome founded?
2. What ceremonies were used in determining the pomcerium?
3. How was the comitium consecrated?
4. What was the first addition made to Rome?
5. What was the next addition?
6. Into what tribes were the Romans divided?
7. What were the hills added in later times to Rome?
8. Had the Romans any buildings north of the Tiber?
9. When did Rome become a magnificent city?
10. What was the extent of the city?
11. How was the city divided?
12. Which was the most remarkable of the seven hills?
13. What buildings were on the Capitoline hill?
14. What description is given of the forum?
15. Where was the senate-house and comitium?
16. What use was made of the Campus Martius?
17. What was the Pantheon?
18. Were the theatres and circii remarkable?
19. Had the Romans public baths?
20. How was the city supplied with water?
21. Were the cloacæ remarkable for their size?
22. Which was the chief Italian road?
23. What were the most remarkable places on the Appian road?
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hence a gate was called _porta_, from _porta're_, to carry. The
reason of this part of the ceremony was, that the plough being deemed
holy, it was unlawful that any thing unclean should pollute the place
which it had touched; but it was obviously necessary that things clean
and unclean should pass through the gates of the city. It is
remarkable that all the ceremonies here mentioned were imitated from
the Tuscans.
[2] This, though apparently a mere conjecture, has been so fully
proved by Niebuhr, (vol. i. p.
251,) that it may safely be assumed as
an historical fact.
[3] See Chapter II. of the following history.
[4] All authors are agreed that the Coelian hill was named from
Coeles Viben'na, a Tuscan chief; but there is a great variety in the
date assigned to his settlement at Rome. Some make him cotemporary
with Rom'ulus, others with the elder Tarquin, or Servius Tullius. In
this uncertainty all that can be satisfactorily determined is, that at
some early period a Tuscan colony settled in Rome.
[5] Others say that they were named so in honour of Lu'ceres, king of
Ardea, according to which theory the third would have been a
Pelasgo-Tyrrhenian colony.
[6] We shall hereafter have occasion to remark, that the Lu'ceres were
subject to the other tribes.
[7] See History, Chapter IV.
[8] The Pincian and Vatican hills were added at a much later period
and these, with Janiculum, made the number ten.
[9] They were named as follow:
1. Porta Cape'na 2. Coelimon'tium 3. I'sis and Sera'pis 4. Via
Sa'cra 5. Esquili'na 6. Acta Se'mita 7. Vita Lata 8. Forum Roma'num 9.
Circus Flamin'ius 10. Pala'tium 11. Circus Max'imus 12. Pici'na
Pub'lica 13. Aventinus 14. Transtiberi'na.
The divisions made by Servius were named: the Suburan, which comprised
chiefly the Coelian mount; the Colline, which included the Viminal
and Quirinal hills; the Esquiline and Palatine, which evidently
coincided with the hills of the same name.
[10] Among the public buildings of ancient Rome, when in her zenith,
are numbered 420 temples, five regular theatres, two amphitheatres,
and seven circusses of vast extent; sixteen public baths, fourteen
aqueducts, from which a prodigious number of fountains were constantly
supplied; innumerable palaces and public halls, stately columns,
splendid porticos, and lofty obelisks.
[11] From _caput_, "a head. "
[12] State criminals were punished by being precipitated from the
Tarpeian rock; the soil has been since so much raised by the
accumulation of ruins, that a fall from it is no longer dangerous.
[13] In the reign of Numa, the Quirinal hill was deemed the citadel of
Rome; an additional confirmation of Niebuhr's theory, that Quirium was
a Sabine town, which, being early absorbed in Rome, was mistaken by
subsequent, writers for Cu'res.
[14] Basilicks were spacious halls for the administration of justice.
[15] It is called _Templum_ by Livy; but the word templum with the
Romans does not mean an edifice, but a consecrated inclosure. From its
position, we may conjecture that the forum was originally a place of
meeting common to the inhabitants of the Sabine town on the Quirinal,
and the Latin town on the Palatine hill.
[16] See Chap. XII. Sect. V. of the following History.
[17] See the following chapter.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROMAN CONSTITUTION.
As once in virtue, so in vice extreme,
This universal fabric yielded loose,
Before ambition still; and thundering down,
At last beneath its ruins crush'd a world. --_Thomson_.
I. The most remarkable feature in the Roman constitution is the
division of the people into Patricians and Plebeians, and our first
inquiry must be the origin of this separation. It is clearly
impossible that such a distinction could have existed from the very
beginning, because no persons would have consented in a new community
to the investing of any class with peculiar privileges. We find that
all the Roman kings, after they had subdued a city, drafted a portion
of its inhabitants to Rome; and if they did not destroy the subjugated
place, garrisoned it with a Roman colony. The strangers thus brought
to Rome were not admitted to a participation of civic rights; they
were like the inhabitants of a corporate town who are excluded from
the elective franchise: by successive immigrations, the number of
persons thus disqualified became more numerous than that of the first
inhabitants or old freemen, and they naturally sought a share in the
government, as a means of protecting their persons and properties. On
the other hand, the men who possessed the exclusive power of
legislation, struggled hard to retain their hereditary privileges, and
when forced to make concessions, yielded as little as they
possibly could to the popular demands. Modern history furnishes us
with numerous instances of similar struggles between classes, and of a
separation in interests and feelings between inhabitants of the same
country, fully as strong as that between the patricians and plebeians
at Rome.
2. The first tribes were divided by Ro'mulus into thirty _cu'riæ,_ and
each cu'ria contained ten _gentes_ or associations. The individuals of
each gens were not in all cases, and probably not in the majority of
instances, connected by birth;[1] the attributes of the members of a
_gens_, according to Cicero, were, a common name and participation in
private religious rites; descent from free ancestors; the absence of
legal disqualification. 3. The members of these associations were
united by certain laws, which conferred peculiar privileges, called
jura gentium; of these the most remarkable were, the succession to the
property of every member who died without kin and intestate, and the
obligation imposed on all to assist their indigent fellows under any
extraordinary burthen. [2] 4. The head of each gens was regarded as a
kind of father, and possessed a paternal authority over the members;
the chieftancy was both elective and hereditary;[3] that is, the
individual was always selected from some particular family.
5. Besides the members of the gens, there were attached to it a number
of dependents called clients, who owed submission to the chief as
their patron, and received from him assistance and protection. The
clients were generally foreigners who came to settle at Rome, and not
possessing municipal rights, were forced to appear in the courts of
law, &c. by proxy. In process of time this relation assumed a feudal
form, and the clients were bound to the same duties as vassals[4] in
the middle ages.
6. The chiefs of the gentes composed the senate, and were called
"fathers," (patres. ) In the time of Romulus, the senate at first
consisted only of one hundred members, who of course represented the
Latin tribe Ramne'nses; the number was doubled after the union with
the Sabines, and the new members were chosen from the Titienses. The
Tuscan tribe of the Lu'ceres remained unrepresented in the senate
until the reign of the first Tarquin, when the legislative body
received another hundred[5] from that tribe. Tarquin the elder was,
according to history, a Tuscan Iticumo, and seems to have owed his
elevation principally to the efforts of his compatriots settled at
Rome. It is to this event we must refer, in a great degree, the number
of Tuscan ceremonies which are to be found in the political
institutions of the Romans.
7. The gentes were not only represented in the senate, but met also in
a public assembly called "comitia curiata. " In these comitia the kings
were elected and invested with royal authority. After the complete
change of the constitution in later ages, the "comitia curiata"[6]
rarely assembled, and their power was limited to religious matters;
but during the earlier period of the republic, they claimed and
frequently exercised the supreme powers of the state, and were named
emphatically, The People.
8. The power and prerogatives of the kings at Rome, were similar to
those of the Grecian sovereigns in the heroic ages. The monarch was
general of the army, a high priest,[7] and first magistrate of the
realm; he administered justice in person every ninth day, but an
appeal lay from his sentence, in criminal cases, to the general
assemblies of the people. The pontiffs and augurs, however, were
in some measure independent of the sovereign, and assumed the
uncontrolled direction of the religion of the state.
9. The entire constitution was remodelled by Ser'vius Tul'lius, and a
more liberal form of government introduced. His first and greatest
achievement was the formation of the plebeians into an organized order
of the state, invested with political rights. He divided them into
four cities and twenty-six rustic tribes, and thus made the number of
tribes the same as that of the curiæ. This was strictly a geographical
division, analagous to our parishes, and had no connection with
families, like that of the Jewish tribes.
10. Still more remarkable was the institution of the census, and the
distribution of the people into classes and centuries proportionate to
their wealth. The census was a periodical valuation of all the
property possessed by the citizens, and an enumeration of all the
subjects of the state: there were five classes, ranged according to
the estimated value of their possessions, and the taxes they
consequently paid. The first class contained eighty centuries out of
the hundred and seventy; the sixth class, in which those were included
who were too poor to be taxed, counted but for one. We shall,
hereafter have occasion to see that this arrangement was also used for
military purposes; it is only necessary to say here, that the sixth
class were deprived of the use of arms, and exempt from serving in
war.
11. The people voted in the comitia centuriata by centuries; that is,
the vote of each century was taken separately and counted only as one.
By this arrangement a just influence was secured to property; and the
clients of the patricians in the sixth class prevented from
out-numbering the free citizens.
12. Ser'vius Tul'lius undoubtedly intended that the comitia centuriata
should form the third estate of the realm, and during his reign they
probably held that rank; but when, by an aristocratic insurrection he
was slain in the senate-house, the power conceded to the people was
again usurped by the patricians, and the comitio centuriata did not
recover the right[8] of legislation before the laws[9] of the twelve
tables were established.
13. The law which made the debtor a slave to his creditor was repealed
by Ser'vius, and re-enacted by his successor; the patricians preserved
this abominable custom during several ages, and did not resign it
until the state had been brought to the very brink of ruin.
14. During the reign of Ser'vius, Rome was placed at the head of the
Latin confederacy, and acknowledged to be the metropolitan city. It
was deprived of this supremacy after the war with Porsen'na, but soon
recovered its former greatness.
15. The equestrian rank was an order in the Roman state from the very
beginning. It was at first confined to the nobility, and none but the
patricians had the privilege of serving on horseback. But in the later
ages, it became a political dignity, and persons were raised to the
equestrian rank by the amount of their possessions.
16. The next great change took place after the expulsion of the kings;
annual magistrates, called consuls, were elected in the comitia
centuriata, but none but patricians could hold this office. 17. The
liberties of the people were soon after extended and secured by
certain laws, traditionally attributed to Vale'rius Public'ola, of
which the most important was that which allowed[10] an appeal to a
general assembly of the people from the sentence of a magistrate. 18.
To deprive the plebeians of this privilege was the darling object of
the patricians, and it was for this purpose alone that they instituted
the dictatorship. From the sentence of this magistrate there was no
appeal to the tribes or centuries, but the patricians kept their own
privilege of being tried before the tribunal of the curiæ. 19. The
power of the state was now usurped by a factious oligarchy, whose
oppressions were more grievous than those of the worst tyrant; they at
last became so intolerable, that the commonalty had recourse to arms,
and fortified that part of the city which was exclusively inhabited by
the plebeians, while others formed a camp on the Sacred Mount at some
distance from Rome. A tumult of this kind was called a secession; it
threatened to terminate in a civil war, which would have been both
long and doubtful; for the patricians and their clients were probably
as numerous as the people. A reconciliation was effected, and the
plebeians placed under the protection of magistrates chosen from their
own body, called tribunes of the people.
20. The plebeians, having now authorised leaders, began to struggle
for an equalization of rights, and the patricians resisted them with
the most determined energy. In this protracted contest the popular
cause prevailed, though the patricians made use of the most violent
means to secure their usurped powers. The first triumph obtained by
the people was the right to summon patricians before the comitia
tributa, or assemblies of people in tribes; soon after they obtained
the privilege of electing their tribunes at these comitia, instead of
the centuria'ta; and finally, after a fierce opposition, the
patricians were forced to consent that the state should be governed by
a written code.
21. The laws of the twelve tables did not alter the legal relations
between the citizens; the struggle was renewed with greater violence
than ever after the expulsion of the decem'viri, but finally
terminated in the complete triumph of the people. The Roman
constitution became essentially democratical; the offices of the state
were open to all the citizens; and although the difference between the
patrician and plebeian families still subsisted, they soon ceased of
themselves to be political parties. From the time that equal rights
were granted to all the citizens, Rome advanced rapidly in wealth and
power; the subjugation of Italy was effected within the succeeding
century, and that was soon followed by foreign conquests.
22. In the early part of the struggle between the patricians and
plebeians, the magistracy, named the censorship, was instituted. The
censors were designed at first merely to preside over the taking of
the census, but they afterwards obtained the power of punishing, by a
deprivation of civil rights, those who were guilty of any flagrant
immorality. The patricians retained exclusive possession of the
censorship, long after the consulship had been opened to the
plebeians.
23. The senate,[11] which had been originally a patrician
council, was gradually opened to the plebeians; when the free
constitution was perfected, every person possessing a competent
fortune that had held a superior magistracy, was enrolled as a senator
at the census immediately succeeding the termination of his office.
_Questions for Examination_.
1. What is the most probable account given of the origin of the
distinction between the patricians and the plebeians at Rome?
2. How did Romulus subdivide the Roman tribes?
3. By what regulations were the gentes governed?
4. Who were the chiefs of the gentes?
5. What was the condition of the clients?
6. By whom were alterations made in the number and constitution of the
senate?
7. What assembly was peculiar to the patricians?
8. What were the powers of the Roman kings?
9. What great change was made in the Roman constitution by Servius
Tullius?
10. For what purpose was the census instituted?
11. How were votes taken in the comitia centuriata?
12. Were the designs of Servius frustrated?
13. What was the Roman law respecting debtors?
14. When did the Roman power decline?
15. What changes were made in the constitution of the equestrian rank?
16. What change was made after the abolition of royalty?
17. How were the liberties of the people secured?
18. Why was the office of dictator appointed?
19. How did the plebeians obtain the protection of magistrates chosen
from their own order?
20. What additional triumphs were obtained by the plebeians?
21. What was the consequence of the establishment of freedom?
22. For what purpose was the censorship instituted?
23. What change took place in the constitution of the senate?
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The same remark may be applied to the Scottish clans and the
ancient Irish septs, which were very similar to the Roman _gentes_.
[2] When the plebeians endeavoured to procure the repeal of the laws
which prohibited the intermarriage of the patricians and plebeians,
the principal objection made by the former was, that these rights and
obligations of the gentes (jura gentium) would be thrown into
confusion.
[3] This was also the case with the Irish tanists, or chiefs of septs;
the people elected a tanist, but their choice was confined to the
members of the ruling family.
[4] See Historical Miscellany Part III. Chap. i.
[5] They were called "patres nunorum gentium," the senators of the
inferior gentes.
[6] The "comitia curiata," assembled in the comi'tium, the general
assemblies of the people were held in the forum. The patrician curiæ
were called, emphatically, the council of the people; (concilium
populi;) the third estate was called plebeian, (plebs. ) This
distinction between _populus_ and _plebs_ was disregarded after the
plebeians had established their claim to equal rights. The English
reader will easily understand the difference, if he considers that the
patricians were precisely similar to the members of a close
corporation, and the plebeians to the other inhabitants of a city. In
London, for example, the common council may represent the senate, the
livery answer for the populus, patricians, or comitia curiata, and the
general body of other inhabitants will correspond with the plebs.
[7] There were certain sacrifices which the Romans believed could only
be offered by a king; after the abolition of royalty, a priest, named
the petty sacrificing king, (rex sacrificulus,) was elected to perform
this duty.
[8] Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the _exclusive_ right of
legislation; for it appears that the comitia centuriata were sometimes
summoned to give their sanction to laws which had been previously
enacted by the curiæ.
[9] See Chap. XII.
[10] The Romans were previously acquainted with that great principle
of justice, the right of trial by a person's peers. In the earliest
ages the patricians had a right of appeal to the curiæ; the Valerian
laws extended the same right to the plebeians.
[11] The senators were called conscript fathers, (patres conscripti,)
either from their being enrolled on the censor's list, or more
probably from the addition made to their numbers after the expulsion
of the kings, in order to supply the places of those who had been
murdered by Tarquin. The new senators were at first called conscript,
and in the process of time the name was extended to the entire body.
* * * * *
CHAPTER V.
THE ROMAN TENURE OF LAND--COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care,
Heedless of others, to his own severe. --_Homer_.
[As this chapter is principally designed for advanced students, it has
not been thought necessary to add questions for examination. ]
The contests respecting agrarian laws occupy so large a space in Roman
history, and are so liable to be misunderstood, that it is necessary
to explain their origin at some length. According to an almost
universal custom, the right of conquest was supposed to involve the
property of the land. Thus the Normans who assisted William I. were
supposed to have obtained a right to the possessions of the Saxons;
and in a later age, the Irish princes, whose estates were not
confirmed by a direct grant from the English crown, were exposed to
forfeiture when legally summoned to prove their titles.
